1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an assistive breathing apparatus for sports or exercise use. More specifically, the present invention relates to a breathing apparatus that employs a unique and secure motion for releasing stored gas and supplying both the stored gas and entrained ambient atmosphere to a user while enabling later secure storage without risk of unintended release.
2. Description of the Related Art
The related art involves a wide number of personal use air canisters or oxygen canisters that often include some form of mouth-mask or lip canister. Personal-use oxygen canisters are commonly used, for example to augment or assist blood-oxygen content during extreme sports activity or during a user's presence at a high-altitude/low oxygen partial-pressure condition, where recovery of blood-oxygen content is a slow process.
The use of oxygen canisters has been long known from high-altitude mountaineering and often these canisters are strapped to a users back like a back-pact, with a flexible hose and separate mask used to provide oxygen to a user's lip region. Such uses have fallen-out of favor unless mandatory due to the detrimental weight and awkward positioning required. It is also known, for example to employ a small-sized oxygen canister with a mouthpiece projecting at a right-angle to the canister axis and a twist-opening valve. With these constructions, a plurality of fixing or positioning straps are employed to elastically fix the mouthpiece to the user's lip region, with the long-axis of the bottle projecting along the user's chest. These constructions are disfavored due to their interference with close body positioning (for example during rock climbing), and the uncomfortable pressure applied to the user's lips and mouth.
Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 2, a conventional personal assistive apparatus 100 includes a bottle member 102 joined to a universal mouthpiece member 103 having a single gas opening 105 positioned centrally. A cover cap member 101 is fittable over both bottle ember 102 and universal mouthpiece member 103 and outer surface portion 107 of bottle 102.
In a pre-use condition, a male valve stem member 104 projects upwardly from a valve stem assembly region on bottle 102 and is partially received within a nesting flange 106 projecting centrally from within mouthpiece member 103. An enclosed passage (not shown) projects from nesting flange member 106 to single gas opening 105 to transfer use-gas directly to a user during a use. Valve stem member 104 is actionable, and will release use-gas, only along an axial motion along the length of valve stem member 104. As a consequence, in a pre-use position mouthpiece member 103 rests over valve stem member 104 without contacting outer surface portion 107 of bottle 102 and is solely suspended upon valve stem member 104. As a consequence, an outer and bottom-most lip portion 108 of universal mouthpiece member 103 fails to contact bottle member 102 and is pivotal relative thereto. In this pre-use storage position, cap member 101, having a larger inner diameter than an outer diameter of universal mouthpiece member 103 may cover member 103 and a bottom portion of cap member 101 may snap-engage a detent ring 109 to retain cover member 103 within the bounded volume defined therein.
As an unfortunate result of this universal design, it is common during shipping a pre-use for universal mouthpiece member 103 to become disengaged with valve stem 104 and to rattle within snap-engaged cap member 101, thereby requiring re-attachment and often hand-steadying by a user prior to a use. In an in-use position, a user positions universal mouthpiece member 103 about valve stem 104 and uses a first hand to grip a barrel of bottle 102 and a second hand to steady universal mouthpiece member 103 to position the same about a lip region. To initiate a use, a user presses bottle 102 against their lip region steadying respectively with their hands. As pressure is applied, nesting flange 106 presses downwardly on valve stem 104 and actuates release of use-gas. In a full-use position, bottom-most lip portion 108 will contact outer surface portion 107 and prevent over-compression of the valve. Also in full-use position, a sealing flange on universal mouthpiece member 103 fully seals about the user's lip region to prevent unintended escape of use gas. Upon a release of the pressure, valve stem 104 pushes mouthpiece member 103 away from surface portion 107. As a consequence, mouthpiece member 103 is now only centrally-supported and may pivot and tilt relative to bottle 102, and may easily become disengaged and fall away without two-handed use. While this central-support of mouthpiece 103 enables its use on a number of canisters or bottles 103, hence its universal capacity, this very construction raises substantive detriments.
In sum, as is obvious from this conventional construction, there are substantive including risk of damage to valve stem member 104 through pivot and miss-position of mouthpiece member 103. A related detriment is the unintended separation and potential loss of mouthpiece member 103 fully from assembly 100 upon removal of cover cap 101. An additional detriment is the requirement for both (a) dual-handed use to operate securely, (b) the requirement for continual hand pressure along the bottle axis to actuate the valve assembly, and the inability to use personal assistive apparatus 100 in a hands-free condition, for example while resting. As a consequence, the detriments of assembly 100 prohibit its use during high-energy sports such as climbing, mountaineering, and extreme skiing.
Such related art liners are also shown at BetterThanAir, LLC of Evergreen, Colo. 80437 and its related website, and at Oxia Distribution Inc. of Snowmass, Colo. 81654 and its related website. Alternative attachment mechanisms include a threaded container attachment, for example in U.S. Pat. No. 3,186,407 to Morrison.
What has also recently been appreciated by those of skill in the art is the prohibitive focus on supplying a user's lung gas volume solely from the attendant canister. Where a mouthpiece is sealed to a user's lip region, a normal inhalation may have a volume of 2.5 liters requiring the same delivery from the limited-use canister. The supply of such large volumes of gas to satisfy a user's lung volume requires the use of large canisters or heavy canisters to withstand increased internal pressure. Thus, while the sports-need is to augment blood-oxygen content may require only the supply of pure oxygen, the parallel need to satisfy lung volume often requires the use of pressurized breathing air. Now, that sports medicine recognizes the dangers of oxygen-poisoning (where the blood is over-oxygenated causing damage), it is critical to avoid the risks existent with pure oxygen. In sum, a conundrum exists in the industry between the need to supply oxygen and to supply sufficient lung volume to users that is yet unsatisfied in the industry. No response to this need has been satisfactory to date.
As a consequence of the above it is now clear that the related art has failed to appreciate the need for a personal use assistive breathing apparatus having a small size for transport, a securely attached construction to prohibit separation of damage prior to or during storage, and with an optional capacity for hands-free use to allow improved user resting and recovery under extreme conditions, all while avoiding the dangers and risks associated with the related art.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved personal-use assistive breathing apparatus that overcomes at least one of the detriments noted above.